Manga

Manga has now become an almost universal word
with the spread of popular Japanese culture. It is written with the Chinese
characters .

As usual, hiragana ()
and katakana ()
versions can also be found. Specialist retailers of manga
as well as manga coffee shops, etc. are reasonably
common in Tokyo. In their signage hiragana appears to be relatively
common. For instance:

Manga kissa 24 hours
Comic coffee shop 24 hours

Manga & Intaanetto
Comics and Internet

In this case, the familiarity of the word manga
seems to have facilitated the practice of using only the phonetic hiragana.
In addition, the tendency towards a juvenile orientation (although certainly
read by adults, manga-consumption starts from childhood)
may have assisted in the shift towards a simpler representation.

A Google search in August 2003 found the following distribution of forms on
the Internet.